Chapter 9: "Taste in Men"

Darren Shan entered his tent that he shared with the Snake Boy, he was deep in thoughts and not taking care of what was happening around him.
Because he was so much in his thoughts, he scared to death when he realized he was not alone in the tent. Someone was sitting on his bed.
And it was not Evra.
"Shit!" Darren said and clutched at his chest. "Gillian! You scared me!"
The halfvampiress Gillian sat calmly with her legs crossed on his bed, wrapped in his sleeping bag. She looked at him from under her black bangs.
"Mr Crepsley has not said anything about that you're back," Darren tried to calm down his wildly beating heart.
"Mr. Crepsley doesn`t know I'm here", Gillian said softly and soundlessly.
"Oh, I see." Darren glanced outside. "It is too early. He will not wake up before an hour on." Darren felt he was relieved.
"Man, that's great that you're back. Since you're gone, everything goes wrong here. Crepsley has ... "
"We don`t have much time," Gillian interrupted him and got up from bed, so that the sleeping bag slipped from her shoulders. She wore a black hooded sweatshirt over her dress, although it was a warm day. "You must come with me."
Darren frowned: "Why ...?"
Gillian came up to him and looked earnestly into his face. "It's about your parents. I think the vampaneze have kidnapped them. "
Darren was shocked. "What?"
"We must hurry up."
Darren ran to his bed, picked up his leather jacket from the floor and put it on.
He saw that Gillian stared into the other part of the tent, to the chest where Darren knew, Evras snake was sleeping in. When she noticed his glance, she looked away quickly.
"Are you coming?", she asked.
Where exactly is Evra? , Darren wondered, but aloud he said: "Wait, we must awaken Mr. Crepsley."
"No, Darren, we have to do this without him." She pulled him by the arm.
"But Crepsley is ..."
"Larten Crepsley will not lift a finger to save your parents, they are only human," Gillian said harsh, and pulled the struggling Darren out of the tent.
"No, I cannot believe that. He is not that way ... ", Darren muttered incredulously.
Gillian stopped and looked him straight in the eye. "I've known him longer than you."
Darren swallowed.
Then he followed the halfvampiress outside.
Gillian threw a glance back to the chest.
I'm sorry Evra, she thought.
Gillian went ahead and pushed Darren behind a trailer because some Cirque performers were passing by very close. "We must flit from the camp ground," she whispered urgently to Darren. "We meet on the hill. Watch out that no one sees you. "
Darren nodded approvingly.
Then Gillian was gone.

The house of the Shans was quiet and abandoned, there was no light inside but the car was parked in the driveway.
A buzz filled the air, as if someone had wiped over the colors with a damp cloth, as the half-vampires Darren and Gillian appeared suddenly in the garden.
"Dad's car is there, and the patio door is open, but nobody seems to be home," Darren whispered. "You're right, something is wrong."
He crept up to the porch and slipped into the house.
Gillian followed silently.
Darren searched the house from top to bottom, but nobody was there.
When he came back down the stairs from the first floor into the hallway, worried because he had found no one there, he found Gillian with her arms crossed over her chest leaning on a dresser. "They are not here," Darren said breathlessly. "You mean somebody kidnapped them?"
Gillian nodded.
"But where to?", the vampires assistant applied.
Gillian bit her lips. "I don`t know ..."
Darren began to rummage through the wardrobe. "Dad's car keys are here, and his jacket and all ..."
"Darren? What did Mr. Crepsley say, after I was gone? "
Darren hardly noticed, he was searching for clues where his parents could be. "He was totally out of mind. The last three days without you were terrible. He was ònly lying in his coffin and just didn`t want to come out. And he had a dream. He said he had seen you jumping off a bridge ... what is that? "
Darren pushed Gillian aside to take a look at the dresser. "Oh my God, look!"
Darren pulled a knife that was stuck in the wall. A green paper had been pinned to the wall at eye level. "This is a ticket for the Cirque du Freak". He had not noticed it before, because Gillian had stood in front of it.
Gillian looked over his shoulder. "It is an old ticket."
Darren's eyes widened. "That's my ticket! Look at the date: six weeks ago. That was the date when Steve and I ... ", Darren hit with the flat hand against his forehead :"The Theatre! They are in the old theater! "
And he opened the front door and stormed off.

The old theater was quiet and deserted, as Darren and Gillian entered it. They sneaked through the rows of chairs to the stage, listening to every sound.
"I think they are not here," whispered Darren and climbed onto the stage.
"That depends on who you're looking for," a voice shouted down from the balcony, and Darren turned in shock. Up there a figure was standing on the balustrade with crossed arms and looked down at him. The figure was hardly seeable in the darkness, but the voice was all too familiar for Darren: "Steve!"
Steve grinned. With one leap he jumped down from the railing and landed with outstretched arms next to Darren on the stage as if he had wings.
Darren gasped in shock and took a step back.
"Steve! But .. what ... how did you ... ?"
He saw his best friend, but at the same time not.
Steve had changed.
To his smug arrogant face, pale skin and irritating purple eyes had come. "You're ...", Darren gasped.
Steve grinned. "Surprised? So was I, when I found out that my best friend has become a vampire. How did that happen again? "
Steve put a finger to his lips, in mock thoughtfulness. "My best friend was climbing out the window at night, fell and had broken his neck. He was dead and I was at his funeral along with his crying sister and his parents. "
"Steve, I ...", Darren moaned.
"But no, my best friend was not dead, he had turned into a vampire, and then faked to be dead. So he could disappear together with his vampire master Larten Crepsley, and nobody would ask for him. "
Steve's eyes sparkled, and Darren stepped involuntarily back from him.
"I was the one who had wanted to be a vampire. But you're the one who made it. You already had planned it, right? You've said to Mr Crepsley, I am evil. You have made sure that he rejects me, that you yourself ... "
"No!" Darren gasped. "I never wanted to be a vampire. I have only consented to become his assistant in order to save your life. Otherwise you'd be dead now!"
"What a heartbreaking story that you've worked out", he snorted. "I thought you were my best friend!"
"I'm your best friend" , Darren said outraged.
"You've stolen my place!"
"It looks like you've found a place somewhere else ..." Darren wondered how it was possible that his friend Steve was standing here before him as an angry vampire. When was that done, and who had transformed him?
Steve built himself ostentatiously up in front of him. "Surprised? I have found friends who gave me what I wanted. Real friends. "
An evil smile spread across his face, and Darren felt his heart contracting. "Who ...?"
"Oh, it's not one of those ridiculous vampires, such as those with whom you feel friendly. No circus clowns or vain dandys. We don`t narcotize our prey cowardly and take only a small sip of blood so that our powers vanish. Look at me! What are your ridiculous half-vampire powers against me? "
"You're a vampaneze!", Darren was shocked.
Steve grinned evilly.
"You kill your victims!" Darren swallowed. He could not believe it.
"And you, Darren? Have you ever drunk human blood?" Steve came menacingly towards Darren.
"No, and I won`t. I told you, I never wanted to be a vampire. " Darren stepped back against Gillian, who had all the time stood quietly behind him.
He shivered, because she seemed changed. Her face under the black hood revealed nothing of what she thought, and yet ... why had she brought him here?
Why did she not say anything?
Was she under cahoots with Steve?
Then he noticed : "This sweater should have looked familiar to me immediately," Darren said.
"You must learn to be aware to your surroundings," Gillian said in an emotionless voice.
"Very stupid of you, that you won`t drink human blood," Steve interrupted the two. "Then you've got no chance to defend yourself," and he gave Darren a punch in the stomach.
Darren crouched panting and tears sprang to his eyes.
Before he could straighten up again, Steve hit him hard with his boot and caught Darren on the head, so that he fell crashing to the ground.
Blood shot from his nose.
Steve leaned over his former best friend and grabbed him by the collar. He bared his teeth, and pointed canines that came to light.
Darren blinked from watery eyes up at him.
"That's enough, Steve," Gillian said, quietly, and wanted to hold him back on the arm.
But Steve's head snapped in her direction, and his purple eyes glowed when he gave Gillian such a violent blow that she was thrown back several yards.
"You keep out of this!" Steve hissed and turned his head back to Darren.
Gillians flight was caught by the old tattered curtain, so she landed in a cloud of dust.
She picked herself up again immediately, right in time to see Steve snapping at Darren's throat.
Darren, however, began to fight back: he turned aside at the last second, so that Steve's teeth met only empty air, but he only gained another a punch in the stomach.
"Shit!" Gillian cursed and flit forward to grab Steve at his shirt and pulled him away from Darren with a jerk.
Steve landed on his feet and growled at Gillian: "You dare to interfere, halfvampire?"
"What is this, Steve? Do you want to kill him ? "
Darren stared in horror at Gillian.
How came the two did know each other?
What had Larten Crepsleys student to do with his best friend, who had become a vampaneze?
"What if? Do you want to stop me? ", Steve scoffed.
In a split second he shot forward and slapped Gillian, who was thrown in a swirl of hair to the ground.
Shocked, she lay on the stage that is the world, and held her aching cheek.
She had not expected that Steve would hit her.
She had been wrong about him.
"Leave her alone", Darren shouted.
"Oh, how chivalrous," Steve grinned sarcastically. "Will you defend her now? Have a crush on her, what Darren? "
Gillian got to her feet, and build up next to Darren.
Steve's smile froze. "What's this Gillian? I think you want to become a vampire? "
Gillian nodded. "Correct. A vampire, not a vampaneze. "
Steve curled his nose in disgust. "But it's too late. We have other plans."
From the darkness behind the stage curtain, a figure emerged, his sharp teeth flashed in the shadows.
Murlough.
Gillian felt panic crawling up at his sight. What business had he here? Steve had betrayed her!
Gillian's eyes met those of Darren.
The young half-vampire was not a good fighter.
And if it was true that he had never drank human blood, he had little chance against Steve.
Gillian would have to fight at the same time Murlough and the young vampaneze.
And she knew that she alone had hardly a chance with Murlough alone.
And after what she had seen from Steve, the young vampaneze too had already developed some remarkable skills.
The probability was very high, that Gillian would die in this battle.
Gillian straightened and shifted the weight on her feet.
Her heart was beating to her head and she forced herself to calm her breathing. She looked at Murlough, but kept Steve in the corner of her eyes.
Darren was sweating with fear beside her.
In her belly darkness gathered into a hard lump.

"Is the show already over?", Murlough asked in his slow accent. " Did I come too late?"
"Just in time," Steve grinned. "They're ready."
"Ah ..." smiled Murlough. "Time to die."